REVIEWS: BERNARDA ALBA & THE PAJAMA GAME (added), RUDE fans — Page 2

Audiences are laughing for two reasons. Some performances are so poorly delivered and so out of place that laughter is one of the most logical responses. Some people are just not prepared for the flamenco style singing, dancing, and overall style that encompasses the night and I suppose some of that could catch someone off guard and cause them to laugh.

I agree that the music did provide flow. My audience was very well behaved too. There was no standing ovation and the only comment I heard after the show was that "Phylis Rashad (yes Phylis) was better on the Cosby Show".

Looking back on it I think one of my biggest beefs with the show was that the actors weren't microphoned. It may have helped things.

I loved some of the music though.

EverythingisRent, Lincoln Center has student tickets available i think, 1.5 hours before the show (or 2 hours before, I don't remember) I believe they are $30 (and definitely worth the price). The box office makes it sound like it's all sold out, but there were plenty of seats when I went, last Friday. Good luck! It was definitely worth it to see Daphne on stage, and the production is amazing. I even met Daphne at the stage door; she was so nice.

Well, I know. That's why I said, for the theatricality of the piece.

I mean, characters canNOT get along...but for the sake of being a piece of theatre, the overal product should come together.

If that makes sense.

It seemed that they were all in their own little world, but those worlds didn't quite add up to Bernarda Alba's house.

Yeah, like individually they were their characters.

But the chemistry didn't make them a (disjointed) family.

I think the major flaw is the fact that the show is set up in such a way that each character is developed as so individual (giving each sister an isolated song to describe themself). While I love the solos, and the development of the character it makes it so that I don't care about the family and the daughters as a whole. The show almost made you take sides. Were u with Matirio? Adela? Did you take an outsiders stance with Poncia? Did you sympathize with Bernarda (as this production allowed you to)? This is a problem because it makes you care less of what happens to the family when the internal strife happens, specifically the daughters. At least I experienced this problem. I never felt that there was ever a point where the show made it clear who the good guy was because the bad guy wasn't bad enough. While I enjoy the choice of Bernarda being emotionally vulnerable at times, the lack of fierceness when called for was a horrible hindrance to the overall product.

If the viewer sides with Poncia. They are essentially detached from the beef of the piece. That is a major problem. If the audience sides with Bernarda, the villian becomes the hero which is clearly a negative. If the viewer sides with Matirio, the end is much less affective. If the viewer sides with Angustius the plot is lost on them. It seems to me like a lose lose situation. Maybe someone has another thought?

Also, I felt Candy Buckley required amplification. At my show her voice wasn't it's strongest and several of her important prologue lyrics were missed. It's laughable because it directly followed the "please turn off your hearing aid" announcement.

I agree she could have been worse, but some of the things she said were able to outweigh any sympathy I had for her and how she got there.
What were the exact last words she had in the show? I know the final one was "silence", but before that she kept repeating something? If anyone could PM me that would be great
And my only understudy was for Laura Shoop as the young servant. I couldn't even differentiate between the two servant women, so I don't know which I missed

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Curious to find out others' favorite numbers of the show. My two would be Poncia's 30 Odd Years, and the song during which all 5 of the solos converged perfectly into one beautiful song. Anyone know which that is?

Thirty Odd Years, defintitely.

I don't think the song has an actual end. They end up singin Magdalena's song "My pains mother..."

But they all sing together for "I WILL DREAM OF WHAT I SAW"

I LOVE "Angustias" (I can't hear him in my heart").
The Smallest Stream and Prayer are great.

Gah, I love all the songs. I wish they were longer!

I know I was sad!

Yeah. I read the play before, so I knew. But it was done well...though held out too long.

I have Rashad's whore from "Limbrada's daughter" in my mind. Whore-ah!

And then the daughters joining in.

With Adela alone.

One thing I missed, and this was my own interpretation:

In the play doing Limbrada's scene, I think, Lorca writes as a direction that Adela grabs her stomach. So I always though Adela was pregnant...and seeing what happened to limbrada sort of fuels the fire and pushes her to the end.

But she never grabbed her stomach. Oh well!


I hate that LaCHiusa's songs are always so short...because I love them - and his actor's are usually so talented.
Like "TELL ME" from MC.

Updated On: 3/19/06 at 10:46 PM

Limbrada's Daughter made me wonder if she was pregnant. I agree that it would have helped push her over the edge. Then later I felt that she had to have been a virgin because her sex scene was such a big deal and obviously the final lines in the show.

I felt like a terrible person when I agreed with Bernarda and her daughters in that the whore should burn and learn her lesson. I feel like even more of a horrible person being able to admit it.